Preface: That iconic symbol of Wall Street is a 7000 pound bronze bull....about 16 ft long and 11 feet high. I've never seen it....for although having seen a fair amount of the world I haven't been to New York City since the 1964 World's Fair....even though The Big Apple is only 399 miles from my house....according to Siri. It signifies a bullish economy prepared to trample anything in its way. Why did the Israelites feel it necessary to pressure Aaron to construct a golden calf? Was it just to be like the pagan nations and nothing else? We use the word 'idol' often in Christian circles and in churches. We know enough to at least try to avoid having our own idols....usually of riches or fame of some such thing....but we don't seem to have a healthy fear or an extended knowledge of what idolatry might entail. One biblical verse on idols that I don't think we have paid much attention to would be Revelation 9:20....speaking to the very last of the last days...."The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk," (ESV) Consequently we can hear sermons on.....and have Bible studies on the idolatry of money and riches....but in our haste to proclaim that the idol itself cannot hear or talk or walk....we also denude it of any power behind it...and not knowing that power....we may become more susceptible to it....in this case our passion for the accumulation of riches....via our 401s or Wall Street investments.
This is an odd Lord's Day post. I'm somewhat surprised that I never read Atlas Shrugged back in college in the 70s....for Ayn Rand was a charismatic cult figure on campuses back then.....and because I would read similar complex but popular books such as Gravity's Rainbow and The World According To Garp and The Greening Of America....and Future Shock....but I did....very young....probably about twelve at the time....see Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead....the final scene of which eerily stayed with me over the years....where Howard Roark's new wife rises in the open elevator to the top of the soon to be greatest skyscraper in the world....while Roark waits godlike....arms on in hips.....at the top.
In retrospect....opinion here of course....Ayn Rand's capitalism as connected to her philosophy of Objectivism is the worst capitalism of all....and it has reared its ugly head today through America first....which is really America Only....which is why we can threaten and browbeat and throw tariffs at will on anyone from whom we can get a few dollars more.
Philosophers have rejected Ayn Rand's system but from time to time over the decades during and after her life she would again become very popular in certain sectors of American life....at one time conservatives and at another time Libertarians and at other times college students and protesters....and again at other times intellectuals....as Alan Greenspan was more than an admirer of hers....evidenced as he invited her to the White House when he was named President Ford's chair of his Council of Economic Advisers...(a photo exists of Rand and Greenspan and President Ford that is available through a quick Google search)
This philosophy....this system of hers....effects man in many areas of life and government but essentially it is using an inductive logic from the reality that our senses perceive where as Wikipedia puts it...."the moral purpose of one's life is to pursue one's own happiness." So for example...altruism in any form is a waste of time. It's really as bad as it sounds. Compare this to the Westminster Shorter Catechism answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?"...."Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
As a child during the early days of the Soviet Union Ayn Rand's family was persecuted. She escaped....it took a while but she became famous for her writing. She was an atheist who could not tolerate anything to do with God....and she despised William F. Buckley....as the feeling was returned.
In many ways Donald Trump could have been one of her heroic characters.... he could have been Howard Roark at the top of his Trump Tower....but in some other ways she would have despised him. Trump said during the campaign that he read The Fountainhead....and listed it as one of his favorite books....but more likely he...as I....saw the film.
"Lord open our eyes to this man"....it's not a prayer that I utter while purposely taking time for prayer.....but rather uttered at different times throughout any day when I hear some new news about President Trump...."Lord....open our eyes to this man....open my own eyes to myself....have mercy upon your children if not all of America....that at least we might look once again only to you....having learned a lesson on how easily it is to be taken in by the philosophies of this world."
This is an odd Lord's Day post. I'm somewhat surprised that I never read Atlas Shrugged back in college in the 70s....for Ayn Rand was a charismatic cult figure on campuses back then.....and because I would read similar complex but popular books such as Gravity's Rainbow and The World According To Garp and The Greening Of America....and Future Shock....but I did....very young....probably about twelve at the time....see Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead....the final scene of which eerily stayed with me over the years....where Howard Roark's new wife rises in the open elevator to the top of the soon to be greatest skyscraper in the world....while Roark waits godlike....arms on in hips.....at the top.
In retrospect....opinion here of course....Ayn Rand's capitalism as connected to her philosophy of Objectivism is the worst capitalism of all....and it has reared its ugly head today through America first....which is really America Only....which is why we can threaten and browbeat and throw tariffs at will on anyone from whom we can get a few dollars more.
Philosophers have rejected Ayn Rand's system but from time to time over the decades during and after her life she would again become very popular in certain sectors of American life....at one time conservatives and at another time Libertarians and at other times college students and protesters....and again at other times intellectuals....as Alan Greenspan was more than an admirer of hers....evidenced as he invited her to the White House when he was named President Ford's chair of his Council of Economic Advisers...(a photo exists of Rand and Greenspan and President Ford that is available through a quick Google search)
This philosophy....this system of hers....effects man in many areas of life and government but essentially it is using an inductive logic from the reality that our senses perceive where as Wikipedia puts it...."the moral purpose of one's life is to pursue one's own happiness." So for example...altruism in any form is a waste of time. It's really as bad as it sounds. Compare this to the Westminster Shorter Catechism answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?"...."Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
As a child during the early days of the Soviet Union Ayn Rand's family was persecuted. She escaped....it took a while but she became famous for her writing. She was an atheist who could not tolerate anything to do with God....and she despised William F. Buckley....as the feeling was returned.
In many ways Donald Trump could have been one of her heroic characters.... he could have been Howard Roark at the top of his Trump Tower....but in some other ways she would have despised him. Trump said during the campaign that he read The Fountainhead....and listed it as one of his favorite books....but more likely he...as I....saw the film.
"Lord open our eyes to this man"....it's not a prayer that I utter while purposely taking time for prayer.....but rather uttered at different times throughout any day when I hear some new news about President Trump...."Lord....open our eyes to this man....open my own eyes to myself....have mercy upon your children if not all of America....that at least we might look once again only to you....having learned a lesson on how easily it is to be taken in by the philosophies of this world."
